1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to feeding devices and image processing apparatuses, more particularly to a feeding device that feeds sheets and an image processing apparatus including the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A known conventional sheet feeding device is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-128297. FIGS. 12A and 12B are plan views of the feeding device 500 described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-128297.
The feeding device 500 includes a pre-registration roll pair 502 and a registration roll pair 504, as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B. The pre-registration roll pair 502 and the registration roll pair 504 are arranged in this order in the direction of feeding documents P, so as to feed documents P.
Incidentally, when a document P is fed to the registration roll pair 504 in a skewed state, as shown in FIG. 12A, the feeding device 500 is capable of correcting the skew of the document P. More specifically, when a document P is fed to the registration roll pair 504 in a skewed state, the pre-registration roll pair 502 is released from restraint, and therefore can slide in a direction perpendicular to the feed direction. Thereafter, the pre-registration roll pair 502 is caused to slide in the perpendicular direction by means of force applied to the leading edge of the document P by the registration roll pair 504, as shown in FIG. 12B. Thus, the skew of the document P is corrected.
However, the feeding device 500 described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-128297 has a problem in that skew of a document P placed lengthwise in the feed direction cannot be corrected. More specifically, roller pairs, such as an unillustrated feed roller pair, are provided upstream from the pre-registration roll pair 502 in the feed direction. When a document P is placed lengthwise in the feed direction, the document P is fed by the registration roll pair 504, the pre-registration roll pair 502, and the feed roller pair. In this case, the document P is positioned between the feed roller pair, which inhibits the pre-registration roll pair 502 from sliding. As a result, the feeding device 500 cannot correct the skew of the document P properly.